Roger Moore's Swiss bank account details plastered on Web

Bond star shaken and stirred

Showbiz stars are fuming at Credit Suisse after a technical glitch revealed their secret Swiss bank account details on the Net for a week.

James Bond actor Roger Moore was among those affected by the cock-up - which showed bank account numbers, private addresses and details of 675 money transfers.

The problem stemmed from SwissPerform, a Swiss agency which co-ordinates royalty payments. It sent the data to Credit Suisse as part of a test transfer for its online banking system. Amounts ranged from 48 cents to $26,113.

The information appeared on the public test section of Credit Suisse's online banking site - which punters can try out, but are only supposed to use fictional information.

The bank insisted it was not to blame, and that it had not published any customer data on the Web.

"The data relating to prominent persons was entered in the test area by an external company," states Credit Suisse on it Website.

"The company in question tested out a payment order using its own genuine customer data, whereby names, addresses and details of the banking relationships of the payees - as well as the sum of these one-off payments - were displayed. The data concerned comprised information which originated from an external company and not from Credit Suisse."

Credit Suisse has blocked the page while it looks into the error, stressing that customer accounts could not have been accessed by nosey surfers.

However, some 'stars' were fuming, and vented their anger to Swiss newspaper Blick, which ran the story on its front page.

"This is a first-class scandal," said German pop singer Udo Juergens. "How can I feel secure at such an institution?"

Swiss singer Polo Hofer was also peeved, saying he planned to shut his two accounts with the bank. ®